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In 1988, five to ten percent of the approximately 60,000 machines making up the then fledgling Internet were crippled by a virulent program wiggling its way through flaws in the network's interconnections. It replicated so rapidly that other programs couldn't run. That worm, written by Robert Morris, then a graduate student at Cornell, focussed a lot of attention on a new thing called the Internet. Fast forward to early May, 2000, when thousands of computer users found their mailboxes chock-full of not-so-friendly love letters. The Typhoid Marys in this case were computers running Microsoft Windows that had something called Windows Scripting Host enabled -- and users of those computers who unwittingly opened an infected file attachment in their e-mail. So much electronic mail began flying back and forth that the Internet itself began to slow down. Many major corporations had to take their e-mail systems off the network for days to sort out the damage and purge the nasty notes from their systems. Those two incidents showed just how fragile computer communications networks can be. But today, with millions of users on the Internet -- and millions of dollars riding on e-commerce, fast communications, and instant access -- the effects can be felt a lot more dramatically than they were in 1988. So what are researchers doing to try to prevent malicious programs from disrupting computer systems? Some analyze systems for vulnerabilities, trying to plug the holes that let programs like the Morris Internet Worm work so easily. Others try to develop ways to combat offensive code. Still others are looking towards the future, trying to develop systems that will work more like the human immune system, recognizing foreign code, and taking action on their own. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk about computer viruses. Call in with your thoughts and comments at 1-800-989-8255, and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (sign up!).
Guests: George Smith Shawn V. Hernan
Books/Articles Discussed: Related Links: This segment produced by: Charles
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Host/Executive Producer/Editor of Science Friday: Ira Flatow Senior Producer of Science Friday: Karin Vergoth Executive web producer: Ira Flatow Web producer: Charles Bergquist
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